"That dream," Geo said to Urson a moment after the mate left. Urson
looked down from his bunk.
"You had it too?"
Both turned to Snake.
"I guess that was your doing, eh?" Urson said.
Snake scrambled down from the upper bunk.
"Did you go wandering around the deck last night and do some spying?"
Geo asked.
By now most of the other sailors had risen, and one suddenly stepped
between Urson and Geo. "'Scuse me, mate," he said and shook the figure
in the second berth. "Hey, Whitey, come on. You can't be that soused
from last night. Get up or you'll miss mess." The young sailor shook the
figure again. "Hey, Whitey." The figure in the blankets was
unresponsive. The sailor gave him one more good shake, and as he rolled
over, the blanket fell away from the blond head. The eyes were wide and
dull, the mouth half open. "Hey, Whitey," the black sailor said again,
and then he stepped back, slowly.
* * * * *
Mist enveloped the ship three hours out from port. Urson was called for
duty right after breakfast, but no one bothered either Snake or Geo that
first morning. Snake would slip off somewhere and Geo would be left to
wander the ship alone. He was walking beneath the dories when the heavy
slap of bare feet on the wet deck materialized in Urson. "Hey," greeted
his friend. "What are you doing under here?"
"Nothing much," Geo said.
Urson was carrying a coil of rope about his shoulder. Now he slung it
down into his hand and leaned against the support shaft and looked out
toward the fog. "It's a bad beginning this trip has had," he said. "What
few sailors I've talked to don't like it at all."
"Urson," said Geo, "have you any idea what actually happened this
morning?"
"Maybe I have and maybe I haven't," Urson said. "What ones have you?"
"Do you remember the dream?" he asked.
Urson scrunched his shoulders as if suddenly cold. "I do," he said.
"It was like we were seeing through somebody else's eyes, almost."
"Our little four-armed friend sees things in a strange way if that's the
case."
"Urson, that wasn't Snake's eyes we saw through. I asked him, just
before he went off exploring the ship. It was somebody else. All he did
was get the pictures and relay them into our minds. And what was the
last thing you saw?"
"As a matter of fact," Urson said, turning, "I think he was looking at
poor Whitey's bunk."
"And who was supposed to be sleeping in poor Whitey's bunk?"
"Snake?"
"Exactly. Do you think perhaps White was killed?"
"Could be, I guess. But how, and why, and who?"
"Somebody who wanted Snake killed. Maybe the same person who cut his
tongue out a year and a half ago."
"I thought we decided that we didn't know who that was."
"A man you know, Urson," Geo said. "What man on this ship have you
sailed with before?"
"Don't you think I've been looking?" Urson asked. "There's not a
familiar face on deck, other than maybe one I've seen in a dockside bar,
but never one whose name I've known."
"Think, Urson, who on this ship you've sailed with before," Geo asked
again, more intently.
Suddenly Urson turned. "You mean the mate?"
"That's just who I mean," said Geo.
"And you think he tried to kill Snake. Why didn't Snake tell us?"
"Because he thought if we knew, we'd get in trouble with it. And he may
be right."
"How come?" asked Urson.
"Look, we know something is fishy about Argo. The more I think about it,
the less I can put my hands on it. But if something is fishy about the
mate too, then perhaps he's in cahoots with her. What about when he came
into Argo's cabin last night when we were there?"
"Maybe he was just doing what we said we were; walking by when he heard
a noise. If it was his eyes we were seeing through, then he sees things
awfully funny, then."
"Maybe he's a strange one too, like Snake who 'hears' things funny. Not
all strangeness shows," Geo reminded him.
"You could be right," said Urson. "You could be right." He stood up from
where he had leaned against a lifeboat support. "Well, you think some
more friend, and I'll listen. I'll see you later." He hauled up his rope
again and started off in the mist.
Geo decided to search for Snake. A ladder led to the upper deck, and
climbing it, he saw across the deck a tall, fog-shrouded figure. He
paused, and then started forward. "Hello," he said.
The captain turned from the railing and looked at him.
"Good morning sir," Geo said. "I thought you might be the mate."
The captain was silent for a while, and then said, "Good morning. What
do you want?"
"I didn't mean to disturb you if you were ..."
"No disturbance," said the captain.
"How long will it take us to get to Aptor?"
"Another three weeks. Shorter if this wind keeps up."
"I see," said Geo. "Have you any idea of the geography of Aptor?"
"The mate is the only one on board that has ever set foot on Aptor and
come off it alive. Except Priestess Argo."
"The mate, sir? When?"
"On a previous voyage he was wrecked there. He made a raft and drifted
into the open sea where he had the good fortune to be picked up by a
ship."
"Then he will lead whatever party goes to the place?"
"Not him," said the captain. "He's sworn never to set foot on the place
again. Don't even ask him to talk about it. Imagine what sort of a place
it must be if probable death on the open sea is better than struggling
on its land. No, he'll pilot us through the bay to the river's estuary,
but other than that, he will have nothing to do with the place.
"Two other men we had on board who'd been there and returned. They went
with the Priestess Argo in a boat of thirteen. Ten were dismembered and
the pieces of their bodies were thrown in the water. Two survived to row
the Priestess back to the boat. One was the sailor who died in the
forecastle this morning. Not half an hour ago, I received news that the
other one went overboard from the rigging and was lost in the sea. This
is not a good trip. Men are not to be lost like coins in a game. Life is
too valuable."
"I see," said Geo. "Thank you for your information and time, sir."
"You are welcome," the captain said. Then he turned away.
Geo descended the ladder again and walked slowly forward. Something
touched him on the shoulder and he whirled.
"Snake, God damn it, don't do that!"
The boy looked embarrassed.
"I didn't mean to yell," Geo said, putting his arm around the boy's
shoulder. "Come on, though. What did you find? I'll trade you what I
know for what you do."
_You ... sleep_, came from Snake.
"I'm sorry, friend," laughed Geo. "But I couldn't take a nap now if you
paid me. Now tell me, whose eyes were we seeing through last night? The
captain's?"
Snake shook his head.
"The mate's?"
Snake nodded.
"I thought so. Now, did he want to kill ... wait a minute," said Geo.
"Can the mate read minds, too? Is that why you're keeping things from
us?"
Snake shrugged.
"Come on now," Geo said. "Do a little yelling and explain."
_Don't ... know_, Snake thought out loud. _Can ... see ... what ...
he ... sees ... hear ... what ... he ... hears. But ... no ... hear ...
thoughts ..._
"I see. Look, take a chance that he can't read minds and tell me, did he
kill the man in the bed you should have been in."
Snake paused for a minute. Then nodded.
"Do you think he was trying to kill you?"
Snake nodded again.
"Did you know that the man killed this morning in your place was one of
the two men who came back from Aptor with the Priestess?"
Snake looked surprised.
"And that the other one drowned this morning, fell overboard, and was
lost?"
Snake nearly jumped.
"What is it?"
_Look ... for ... him ... all ... morning. He ... not ... dead ...
hear ... thoughts ... dim ... low._
"Who's not dead?" Geo asked. "Which one?"
_Second ... man._
"Did you find him?" Geo asked.
_Can't ... find_, Snake said. _But ... alive ... I ... know._
"One other question," Geo raised the jewel from where it hung against
his chest. "How do you work this silly thing?"
_Think ... through ... it_, said Snake.
Geo frowned. "What do you mean? Can you tell me how it works?"
_You ... have ... no ... words_, Snake said. _Radio ... electricity ...
diode ..._
"Radio, electricity, diode?" repeated Geo, the sounds coming
unfamiliarly to his tongue. "What are they?"
Snake shrugged.
* * * * *
Geo got a chance to report his findings to Urson that evening and the
big man was puzzled.
"Can you add anything?" Geo asked.
"All I've had a chance to do is work," grumbled Urson. They were
standing by the edge of the rail beyond which the mist steeped thickly,
making sky and water indistinguishable and grave. "Hey, Four-arms,"
Urson suddenly asked. "What are you looking at?"
Snake stared at the water but said nothing.
"Maybe he's listening to something," suggested Geo.
"You'd think there were better things to eavesdrop on than fishes," said
Urson. "I guess Argo's given special orders that you two get no work.
Some people! Let's go eat." As they started toward the convergence of
sailors at the entrance of the mess hall, Urson said, "Oh, guess what?"
He turned to Geo and picked up the jewel from the boy's chest. "All you
people are going around with such finery, I took my coins to the smithy
and had him put chains on them. Now I'll strut with the best of you." He
laughed, and then went through the narrow way, crowding with the other
sailors into the wide hall.
* * * * *
For two weeks, nights without dreams left them early, and the boat
rolled from beneath the fog. Dawn was gray, but clear; then, by one
breakfast time the ragged slip of Aptor's beach hemmed the horizon.
On the wheel deck the sailors clustered to the rail, and before them
rocks struck like broken teeth from the water. Urson, in his new, triple
neckchain, joined Snake and Geo at the rail. "Whew," he said. "Getting
through them is going to be fun."
Suddenly heads turned. Behind them now, Argo's dark veils, bloated with
the breeze, filled about her as she mounted the steps to the wheel
deck. The sailors moved away from her. Then, one hand on a stay rope,
she stared across the gray water to the dark tongue of land.
From the wheel the captain spoke, "Jordde, disperse the men and take
over the wheel."
"Aye, sir," said the mate. "You, you, and you to the tops." He pointed
among the men. "You also, and you. Hey, didn't you hear me?"
"Me, sir?" Geo turned around.
"Yes, you, up to the top spar there."
"You can't send him up," Urson called out. "He's never been topside at
all before. It's too choppy for any lad's first time up. He doesn't even
know ..."
"And who asked you?" demanded the mate.
"Nobody asked me, sir," said Urson, "but--"
"Then you get below before I have you brigged for insubordination and
fine you your three gold baubles. Don't you think I recognize dead man's
gold?"
"Now look here," Urson roared.
Geo glanced from Argo to the captain. The bewilderment that flooded the
face of the Priestess shocked him.
Jordde suddenly seized up a marlin pin, raised it, and shouted at Urson,
"Get down below before I break your skull open."
Urson's fists sprang up.
"Calmly, brother bear," Geo began.
"In a bitch's ass," snarled Urson and swung his huge arm forward.
Something leaped on Jordde from behind--Snake! The marlin pin veered
inches away from Urson's shoulder. The flung fist sunk into the mate's
stomach and he reeled forward, passing Urson, with Snake still clawing
at his back. He reached the rail, bent double over it, and Snake's legs
flipped up. When Jordde rose, he was free of encumbrance.
Geo rushed to the edge and saw Snake's head emerge in the churning
water. Behind him, Urson yelled, "Look out!" Jordde's marlin made an
inch of splinters in the length of wood against which he had been
leaning.
"Not him!" cried Argo. "No, no! Not him!"
But Jordde had seized Geo's shoulder and whirled him back against the
rail. Geo saw Urson grab a loose rope behind them and suddenly swing
forward, intending to knock Jordde away with his feet. But suddenly Argo
moved in the way of his flying body, turned, saw him, and raised her
hands to push him aside so that he swung wide of them and landed on the
railing a yard from where they struggled.
Geo's feet slipped on the wet boards, and he felt his body suddenly
hurled backwards onto the air. Then his back slapped water. As he broke
surface, Urson, still on the rail called to him, "Hang on, friend Geo,
I'm coming!" Urson's arms swung back, and then forward as he dove into
the sea.
Now Geo could see only Argo and Jordde at the rail. But they were
struggling. Urson and Snake were near him in the water. The last thing
he saw was Jordde suddenly wrest something from Argo's neck and then
fling it out into the sea. The Priestess' hands reached for the flying
jewel, followed its arc as she screamed toward the water.
Then hands were at his body. Geo turned in the water as Snake
disappeared from beside him and Urson suddenly cried out. Hands were
pulling him down.
Roughness of sand beneath one of his sides and the flare of sun on the
other. His eyes were hot and his lids were orange over them. Then there
was a breeze. He opened his eyes, and shut them quick, because of the
light. Then he turned over, thought about pillows and stiff new sheets.
Reaching out, he grabbed sand.
He opened his eyes and pushed himself up from the beach with both hands
spread in warm, soft crumblings. Over there were rocks, and thick
vegetation behind them. He swayed to his knees, the sand grating under
his kneecaps. He looked at his arm in the sun, flecked with grains. Then
he touched his chest.
His hand came to one bead, moved on, and came to another! He looked
down. Both the chain with the platinum claw and the thong with the wire
cage hung around his neck. Bewildered, he heaved to his feet, and
immediately sat down again as the beach went red with the wash of blood
behind his eyeballs. He got up again, slowly.
Carefully Geo started down the beach, looking toward the land. When he
turned to look at the water, he stopped.
At the horizon, beyond the rocks, was a boat with lowered sails. So they
hadn't left yet. He swung his eyes back to the beach: fifty feet away
was another figure lying in the sun.
He ran forward, now, the sand splashing around his feet, sinking under
his toes, so that it was like the slow motion running of dreams. Ten
feet from the figure he stopped.
It was a young black, very dark, skin the color of richly humused soil.
The long skull was shaved. Like Geo, he was almost naked. There was a
clot of seaweed at his wrist, and the soles of his feet and one
up-turned palm were grayish and shriveled.
Geo frowned and stood for a full minute. He looked up and down the beach
once more. There was no one else. Just then the man's arm shifted across
the sand.
Immediately Geo fell to his knees beside the figure, rolled him over and
lifted his head. The eyes opened, squinted in the light, and the man
said, "Who are you?"
"My name is Geo."
The man sat up, and caught himself from falling forward by jamming his
hands into the sand. He shook his head, and then looked up at Geo again.
"Yes," he said. "I remember you. What happened? Did we founder? Did the
ship go down?"
"Remember me from where?" Geo asked.
"From the ship. You were on the ship, weren't you?"
"I was on the ship," Geo said. "And I got thrown overboard by that
damned first mate in a fight. But nothing happened to the ship. It's
still out there, you can see it." Suddenly Geo stopped. Then he said,
"You're the guy who discovered Whitey's body that morning!"
"That's right." He shook his head again. "My name is Iimmi." Now he
looked out to the horizon. "I see them," he said. "There's the ship. But
where are we?"
"On the beach of Aptor," Geo told him.
Iimmi screwed his face up into a mask of dark horror. "No," he said
softly. "We couldn't be. We were days away from her...."
"How did you fall in?"
"It was blowing up a little," Iimmi explained. "I was in the rig when
suddenly something struck me from behind and I went toppling. In all the
mist, they didn't see me, and the current was too strong for me,
and ..." He looked around.
"You've been on this beach once before, haven't you?" Geo asked.
"Once," said Iimmi. "Yes, once."
"Do you realize how long you've been in the water?" Geo asked.
Iimmi looked up.
"Over two weeks," Geo said. "Come on, see if you can walk. I've got a
lot of things to explain, if I can, and we've got some hunting to do."
Iimmi steadied himself once more, and together they started up the
beach.
"What are you looking for?" Iimmi asked.
"Friends," Geo said.
Two hundred feet up, the rocks and torpid vegetation came down to the
water, cutting off the beach. Scrambling over boulders and through
vines, they emerged on a rock embankment that dropped fifteen feet into
the wide estuary of a ribbon of water that wound back into the jungle.
Twenty feet further, the bank dropped to the river's surface, and they
both fell flat at the edge of a wet table of rock and sucked in cool
liquid, watching blue stones and the white and red pebbles shivering six
feet below clear ripples.
There was a sound. Both sprang back from the water, turned, and crouched
on the rock.
"Hey," Urson said, through leaves. "I was wondering when I'd find you."
Light through branches lay on the gold coins hung against his hairy
chest. "Have you seen Snake?"
"I was hoping he was with you," said Geo. "Oh, Urson, this is Iimmi, the
other sailor who died two weeks ago."
Both Iimmi and Urson looked puzzled. "Have a drink of water," Geo said,
"and I'll explain as best I can."
"Don't mind if I do," said Urson.
While the bear man lay down to drink, Geo began the story of Aptor and
Leptar for Iimmi. When he finished, Iimmi asked, "You mean those fish
things in the water carried us here? Whose side are they on?"
"Apparently Argo isn't sure either," Geo said. "Perhaps they're
neutral."
"And the mate?" asked Iimmi. "You think he pushed me overboard after he
killed Whitey?"
"I thought you said he was trying to kill Snake," said Urson, who had
finished drinking.
"He was," explained Geo. "He wanted to get rid of all three. Probably
Snake first, and then Whitey and Iimmi. He wasn't counting on our fishy
friends, though. I think it was just luck that it was Whitey he got
rather than Snake. If he can't read minds, which I'm pretty sure he
can't, he probably overheard you assigning the bunks for us to sleep in,
Urson. When he found out he had killed Whitey instead, it just urged him
to get Iimmi out of the way more quickly."
"I could easily have been pushed," Iimmi agreed. "But I still don't see
why."
"If there is a spy from Aptor on the ship, then Jordde is it," said Geo.
"The captain told me he had been to Aptor once before. It must have been
then that he was enjoined into their forces. Iimmi, both you and Whitey
had also been on Aptor's shore, if only for a few hours. There must be
something that Jordde learned from the island that he was afraid you
might learn, something you might see. Something dangerous, dangerous for
Aptor, something you might see just from being on the beach. Probably it
was something you wouldn't even recognize, something you'd maybe not see
the significance of until much later. But probably something very
obvious."
Now Urson spoke. "What did happen when you were on Aptor? How were those
ten men killed?"
Though the sun was warm, Iimmi shivered. He waited for a moment, and
then he began. "We took a skiff out from the ship and managed to get
through the rocks somehow. It was evening when we started and the moon,
I remember, had risen just above the horizon, though the sky was still
deep blue. 'This light of the full moon is propitious to the White
Goddess Argo,' she said from her place at the bow of the boat. By the
time we landed, the sky was black behind her, and the beach was all
silvered by the light, up and down. Whitey and I were left to guard the
skiff at the water's edge, and sitting on the gunwales, shoulders
hunched in the slight chill, we watched the others go up the beach, five
and five, with Argo behind them.
"Suddenly there was a scream, and the first man fell. They came from the
air like vultures. The moon was overhead by now, and a cloud of them
darkened the white disk with their wings. They scurried after the
fleeing men, over the sand. All we could really make out was a dark
battling against the silver. There were swords raised in the white
light, screams, and howls that nearly sent us back into the ocean. But
Argo and a handful of those men left began to run toward the boat. They
followed them down to the edge of the water, loping behind them, half
flying, half running, hacking one after another down with swords. I saw
one man fall forward and his head roll from his body while blood
squirted ten feet along the sand, crimson under the moon. One actually
caught at her veils, but she screamed and slipped from it into the water
now, and climbed back into the boat, panting. You would think a woman
would collapse, but no. She stood in the bow while we rowed our arms
off. They would not come over the water, apparently, and somehow we
managed to get the skiff back to the ship without foundering against the
rocks."
"Our aquatic friends may have had something to do with that," said Geo.
"Iimmi, you say her veils were pulled off. Tell me, do you remember if
she were wearing any jewelry or not?"
"She certainly wasn't," Iimmi said. "She stood there in only her dark
robe, her throat as bare as ivory."
"She wasn't going to bring the jewel to Aptor where those monsters could
get their hands on it again," said Urson. "But Geo, if Jordde's the spy,
why did he throw the jewel in the sea?"
"Whatever reason he had," said Geo, "our friends have given it to me
now."
"You said Argo didn't know whose side these sea creatures were on,
Leptar's or Aptor's," said Iimmi. "But perhaps Jordde knows, and that's
why he threw it to them." He paused for a moment. "Friend, I think you
have made an error; you tell me you are a poet, and it is a poet's
error. The hinge in your argument that Snake is no spy is that Argo must
have dubious motives to send you on such an impossible task, without
protection, saying that it would be meaningful only if all its goals
were accomplished. You reasoned, how could an honest woman place the
life of her sister below the value of a jewel ..."
"Not just her sister," interrupted Geo, "but _the_ Goddess Argo
Incarnate."
"Be patient," said Iimmi. "Only if she wished to make permanent her
temporary condition, you thought, could she set such an impossible task.
There may be some truth in what you say. But she herself would not bring
the jewel to the shores of Aptor, though it was for her own protection.
Thanks to you, all three jewels are now in Aptor, and if any part of her
story is true, Leptar is now in more danger than it has been in five
hundred years. You have the jewels, two of them, and you cannot use
them. Where is your friend Snake who can? Both Snake and Jordde could
easily be spies and the enmity between them feigned, so that while you
focused on one, you could be misled by the other. You say he can move
into men's minds? Perhaps he clouded yours."
They sat silent for the lapsing of a minute.
"Argo may be torn by many things," continued Iimmi. "But you, in
watching some, may have been deluded by others."
Light from the river quivered on the undersides of leaves. Urson spoke
now. "I think his story is better than yours, Geo."
"Then what shall we do now?" asked Geo, softly.
"Do what the Goddess requests as best we can," said Iimmi. "Find the
Temple of Hama, secure the stone, rescue the young Goddess, and die
before we let the jewels fall into hands of Aptor."
"From the way you describe this place," muttered Urson, "that may not be
far off."
"Still," mused Geo, "there are things that don't mesh. Like why were
you saved too, Iimmi? Why were we brought here at all? And why did
Jordde want to kill you and the other sailor?"
"Perhaps," said Iimmi, "the god Hama has a strange sense of humor and we
shall be allowed to carry the jewels up to the temple door before we are
slaughtered, dropping them at his feet." He smiled. "Then again, perhaps
your theory is the correct one, Geo, and I am the spy, sent to sway your
reason."
Urson and Geo glanced at each other.
"There are an infinite number of theories for every set of facts," said
the Negro. "Rule number one: assume the simplest; that includes all the
known conditions to be true until more conditions arise for which your
theory no longer holds. Rule number two: then, and not until, change
it."
"Then we go on into the jungle," Geo said.
"I guess we do," said Urson.
"Since we've got this job, we've got to trust ourselves and do it right.
Let's see if we can put one more of those things around your neck before
we're through." He pointed to the two jewels hanging at Geo's chest.
Then he laughed. "One more and you'll be all the way up to me," and he
rattled his own triple necklace.